Abstract

ETHNOMEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF SOME PLANTS USED BY THE SANTAL MEDICINE MEN OF THE DISTRICT BANKURA, W.B., INDIA, FOR THE CONTROL OF FERTILITY

Subhra Basak, Samita Manna and Chanchal Kumar Manna*

ABSTRACT

Amongst the various tribal people, the Santal population are quite enormous in the District Bankura, West Bengal, India. Since ancient times, the Santal people depends on nature. Naturally some of them are quite habituated in treating their fellow colleagues from many common and rare diseases. These people are commonly termed as the Gunins, Medicine men, Exorcist etc. They are quite respected in the tribal society as they can cure the affected people with some medicines prepared from the plant parts and in combination with some other ingredients available from the nearby forest and market. In the present study twenty medicine men/women have been thoroughly interrogated with some questionnaires in a friendly manner. The prescriptions were mainly noted regarding the control of fertility of the tribal people. Although the medicine men belong to the same area but the nature of medicines are little bit different. They do not know the mechanism of action of their medicines but are quite confident with their own medicine.As there is no scientific study, it needs further thorough investigations.

Keywords: ingredients, medicine men, questionnaires, tribal people, investigations.